Fireworks in the Park

Last night Scott and I were very excited to take Owen to the park for his first fireworks show. Last year Owen was just a little over 6 months when firework time came, and I thought he was too young to take to the park with all those loud noises. So Owen and I ended up watching the fireworks from a few miles away by Scott's sister's house. So we were excited that this year he was old enough to go and enjoy the show with us. We live just a little over 2 miles from the park so we decided we would walk up there to avoid all the traffic. We love to go on long walks and it was the perfect night for a long walk. The weather was great...not too hot, not too cold...a nice breeze was blowing. It was great. Owen loves taking rides in his stroller too. So we were off. Owen seemed to have a lot of fun once we got to the park. He was running around, tearing the ribbons off the temporary fences, and getting his father nice and aggravated.

Being almost 7 months pregnant I decided to go use the restroom when we got there...but they were locked! I can't believe the park locked the restrooms with that huge of a crowd there. I couldn't have been the only pregnant lady who had to use the bathroom in the whole park! On the way back I saw where they were selling the glow in the dark necklaces that all the kids were throwing around. They were $2.00 each. Surprise, surprise, I had exactly $2.00 in my pocked. So I bought one for Owen. I had to. Growing up I always wanted to get a glow in the dark necklace when we went to the fireworks, but my parents always turned us down. It makes sense to me now...realizing that they had 5 kids, and 5 times $2.00 is $10! Kind of a lot to spend on glow in the dark necklaces. But I only have one kid. So I bought him a green one. He enjoyed it...but he kept trying to eat it! I was a little worried it would bust open. That glow in the dark stuff can't be good to digest.

Finally the fireworks started though! The first one went off..."BOOM!" Owen was looking around trying to figure out what the loud noise was. Then tons of fireworks went off all of the sudden...it was like a grand finale at the beginning of the show. Owen's jaw dropped and his hand reached out to clutch onto his father's shirt. The picture below is what he looked like during the first set of fireworks. After the first set of fireworks were over Owen just said, "OH!" It was kind of comical how he said it though...I wish I could convey it better on a computer screen.

So then the fireworks started going off again. The shock had worn off on Owen though. He decided that the world was coming to an end or something. He started crying. I felt so bad for my little boy : (

After crying for about 20 seconds he decided that he was just going to pretend he wasn't there, so he hid his face in Scott's shirt and closed his eyes. I took him from there since Scott was covered in a plant based insect repellent that you aren't suppose to get on kids under 3. Why he had to wear insect repellent I don't know...it was about 70 degrees outside, there were no insects to be found anywhere!

Pretty quickly after I took Owen he fell asleep. He slept through the rest of the fireworks and the walk home. It was pretty late by that time though. But I felt bad that he didn't enjoy his first fireworks display in the park. Hopefully next year he'll do a little better.